First off, I have to warn you that this review will probably contain spoilers from Uglies and Pretties. The books in this series just don't stand alone very well, so it's impossible to discuss them without talking about events that happened in previous books. If you haven't read the series, I urge you to start from the beginning.

So, we last saw 16-year-old Tally Youngblood in the clutches of a squadron of Specials, who want to make her one of them. Abandoned by the New Smokies and afraid for her very ill boyfriend Zane, Tally has little choice but to surrender. Before she knows it, her body is remade. Numerous operations leave her with "icy new muscles and reflexes tweaked to snakelike speed" (5), which make her especially adept at her job of "tracking down the city's enemies and bringing them to justice" (25). In short, Tally Youngblood is a Special. In fact, she is a special Special - as a Cutter, she's authorized to defend New Pretty Town on her own terms.
Although Tally received the Specials operations against her will, she loves being Special. Not only is she part of a "connected ... unbreakable clique" (8), but now "everything [is] laid out clearly, like looking down on a forest path from above" (9). Only two things mar her happiness: her uneasy alliance with her double-crossing best friend Shay, and the fact that Zane is not yet a Special. "Ancient dramas" (23) aren't supposed to matter to Specials, but it's clear to Tally that Shay hasn't quite forgiven her for what she sees as past betrayals. As leader of the Cutters, Shay is smug and cruel - she commands Tally to "stay icy" and forget about Zane, who is, afterall, a bubblehead and not a Special. Tally can't quite give him up, especially once she sees how weak he has become. Although the "perfect clarity of her vision" (82) makes all his imerfections stand out, she still feels responsible for him. She knows the passion she felt for him will return ... as soon as he becomes a Special.

The irritating thing is that Zane doesn't want to be a Special. His brush with crude Smokey medicine has left him a shaky wimp, but he still wants to help the rebels. Already, he's passing pills around New Pretty Town that will cure the bubbleheads, reverting them back into independent thinkers. He's as guilty as the other Smokies. Shay finally persuades him to lead the Specials to the Smokies new hiding place in exchange for his freedom. Although Shay mocks her weakness, Tally insists on being the one to follow Zane on his journey into the Wild. As she tracks him day after lonely day, Tally finds herself questioning her new identity. Does she really want to be Special? Even when it requires a "mind ... turned against everything random and average and ... crippled" (191)?

Tally's tracking assignment is supposed to end with a quick takeover of the rebel base by Shay's special forces, but what she finds shocks her. The New Smoke is nothing like she imagined. Suddenly, her whole world is turned upside down and Tally's on the front lines of a war she, herself, started. Her Pretty world does not include military helicopters, hand grenades and revenge killings, but things have clearly changed. Can she save her world from madness? Can she get Zane the help he needs, and turn him into the Special she needs him to be? Can she even save herself? Can she answer the biggest question of all - who is Tally Youngblood? She'll face all of these questions as Specials speeds toward its surprising conclusion.

Like the previous two books in this series, Specials explores some big issues - the meaning of freedom; the perils of cutting and other addictions; the importance of autonomy; superiority v. inferiority - but it's mostly about identity. As always, Tally is searching for herself, never quite knowing where she fits in. As she tells her boyfriend:

I'm not sure what I am anymore, Zane. Sometimes I think I'm nothing but what other people have done to me - a big collection of brainwashing, surgeries and cures. That, and all the mistakes I've made. All the people I've disappointed. (190)

Most YA books deal with this issue, and I think Westerfield makes the "Be yourself" point pretty well. Uglies and Pretties both came off as preachy to me - Specials is less so. Besides, the novel's morals get good and camouflaged behind all the action. When Tally's zipping through the air on her hoverboard, desperate to fling herself into a whirring helicopter, you're not asking yourself, "What does this mean?" - you're just holding your breath, waiting to see what happens.

The only thing about this book that bugged me was the ending. I like that it surprised me, but it didn't really satisfy. I know it's setting us up for another sequel (although I'm about a third of the way through Extras, and it hardly mentions Tally ... ), but it just wasn't what I wanted. Still, I sped through the book, loving the thrilling adventure. Take it from me, Specials is anything but average ...

Grade: A-

Note: In the back of my edition of Specials, there's an ad for Pulse It, Simon & Schuster's new spot for teens. It offers free YA books in exchange for reviews. The only catch is you have to be between 14 and 18 (Dang - I only missed the cutoff by a couple of years). Check it out if you're in this age group - it looks cool.